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Wheelabrator’s New Concave Blades Cut Gordian Knot at Nucor Steel
02/17/2015 - Wheelabrator has introduced a new concave blade for its 35 EZEFIT blast wheel, which achieves a narrow blast pattern and a uniquely tight ‘hot spot’ at high abrasive speeds.
The new blade design is perfect for blast machines processing narrow workpieces, such as wire, rod, tube, pipe, bar or profile, providing better cleaning straightaway and fewer multi-passes.
The new blade with its distinct concave design has already solved a major issue at Nucor Steel’s cold-drawn bar line in Darlington, South Carolina. The team around Maintenance Supervisor Stan Thompson were hoping to increase the line speed to more closely match the downstream bar draw, but their 25-year-old blast machine simply couldn’t keep up.
To achieve more concentrated and efficient coverage of the small-diameter cold-drawn bar, the team initially introduced a standard direct-drive 25 EZEFIT blast wheel to use with intensifier plates, but still couldn’t achieve the desired abrasive velocities or flow.
Stan Thompson: “We knew that simply installing more powerful blast wheels to achieve the high velocities we needed wouldn’t get round the problem – it would likely tear apart the machine or cause significant wear issues down the road. What we needed was an elegant solution that would give us a clean, tight blast pattern, as well as high abrasive velocities and flow.”
The new concave blade was the solution that Stan had been looking for. The old machine’s four 17 BD 195 blast wheels were exchanged for four 50hp EZEFIT blast wheels with the new blades. And because the blades are now creating the narrow blast pattern on their own, any expensive intensifier plates could be removed.
The blast machine is now capable of keeping up with the downstream equipment’s line speeds and no longer presents a bottleneck in production at Nucor Steel. The concentrated blast pattern means the blast process is more efficient, leading to less abrasive consumption and better overall part cleaning.
Stan adds: “Wheelabrator’s new concave blades allowed us to do something that we weren’t able to do before – and do it faster and better. But they’ve also significantly cut down our maintenance time and part costs, due to less wear and tear on the machine and a simpler set-up. The abrasive is now going exactly where we need it to go, on the bar, rather than wearing out cabinet liners and casings.”
The new blades are exclusively available on 35 EZEFIT blast wheels from Wheelabrator and can be fitted as part of a strategic equipment upgrade on Wheelabrator and non-Wheelabrator equipment alike.
Wheelabrator Plus offers aftermarket services, engineering support and technical training across industries such as forge & foundry, automotive, aerospace, medical, rail, and power generation, and looks after blast equipment and processes for customers in over 100 countries – with over 35,000 machines in the field.
The new blade with its distinct concave design has already solved a major issue at Nucor Steel’s cold-drawn bar line in Darlington, South Carolina. The team around Maintenance Supervisor Stan Thompson were hoping to increase the line speed to more closely match the downstream bar draw, but their 25-year-old blast machine simply couldn’t keep up.
To achieve more concentrated and efficient coverage of the small-diameter cold-drawn bar, the team initially introduced a standard direct-drive 25 EZEFIT blast wheel to use with intensifier plates, but still couldn’t achieve the desired abrasive velocities or flow.
Stan Thompson: “We knew that simply installing more powerful blast wheels to achieve the high velocities we needed wouldn’t get round the problem – it would likely tear apart the machine or cause significant wear issues down the road. What we needed was an elegant solution that would give us a clean, tight blast pattern, as well as high abrasive velocities and flow.”
The new concave blade was the solution that Stan had been looking for. The old machine’s four 17 BD 195 blast wheels were exchanged for four 50hp EZEFIT blast wheels with the new blades. And because the blades are now creating the narrow blast pattern on their own, any expensive intensifier plates could be removed.
The blast machine is now capable of keeping up with the downstream equipment’s line speeds and no longer presents a bottleneck in production at Nucor Steel. The concentrated blast pattern means the blast process is more efficient, leading to less abrasive consumption and better overall part cleaning.
Stan adds: “Wheelabrator’s new concave blades allowed us to do something that we weren’t able to do before – and do it faster and better. But they’ve also significantly cut down our maintenance time and part costs, due to less wear and tear on the machine and a simpler set-up. The abrasive is now going exactly where we need it to go, on the bar, rather than wearing out cabinet liners and casings.”
The new blades are exclusively available on 35 EZEFIT blast wheels from Wheelabrator and can be fitted as part of a strategic equipment upgrade on Wheelabrator and non-Wheelabrator equipment alike.
Wheelabrator Plus offers aftermarket services, engineering support and technical training across industries such as forge & foundry, automotive, aerospace, medical, rail, and power generation, and looks after blast equipment and processes for customers in over 100 countries – with over 35,000 machines in the field.
